


The Sun

by MayLaNee



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: False Memories, Gen, Harry Has Issues, Harry Potter Has Issues, Hermione Granger & Harry Potter Friendship, Hermione Granger is a Good Friend, Hogwarts Fourth Year, Triwizard Tournament
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:35:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28077816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayLaNee/pseuds/MayLaNee
Summary: Harry has been having some persistent untrue beliefs since the Hungarian Horntail hit him in the head with a rock.The second Triwizard Tournament task doesn't seem to be going much better for him...
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Harry Potter
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	The Sun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NightRaven789](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightRaven789/gifts).



> **This one is for NightRaven789 who asked for ‘Instead of Harry coming up during the second Triwizard Tournament Task, he drowns. Hermione cast a spell to bring him up and performs CPR’.**

The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air and the stands erupted with cheers and applause.

Without looking to see what the other champions were doing, Harry pulled off his shoes and socks, pulled the handful of gillyweed out of his pocket, stuffed it into his mouth, and waded out into the lake. 

It was so cold he felt the skin on his legs searing as though this were fire, not icy water. 

His sodden robes weighed him down as he walked in deeper; now the water was over his knees, and his rapidly numbing feet were slipping over silt and flat, slimy stones.   
He was chewing the gillyweed as hard and fast as he could; it felt unpleasantly slimy and rubbery, like octopus tentacles. 

Waist-deep in the freezing water he stopped, swallowed, and waited for something to happen. 

His mind went to Janice.  
Though she hadn’t taken a Potter Stinks badge, it’d still rubbed him the wrong way that she’d been cheering for both Cedric and himself.   
She was his sister, couldn’t she be a bit more biased?

He sighed as he waited for the gillyweed to take effect.

He was still bitter about not having seen her since the previous task, but she’d probably been busy celebrating Cedric.  
She was in Huffelpuff, after all.

And why did everyone pretend like he was mad every time he mentioned her? 

Was that part of the Tournament somehow?

He could hear laughter in the crowd and knew he must look stupid, walking into the lake without showing any sign of magical power. 

Would she be laughing, too?

The part of him that was still dry was covered in goose pimples; half immersed in the icy water, a cruel breeze lifting his hair, Harry started to shiver violently.  
He avoided looking at the stands; the laughter was becoming louder, and there were catcalls and jeering from the Slytherins…

Then, quite suddenly, Harry felt as though an invisible pillow had been pressed over his mouth and nose. He tried to draw breath, but it made his head spin; his lungs were empty, and he suddenly felt a piercing pain on either side of his neck - Harry clapped his hands around his throat and felt two large slits just below his ears, flapping in the cold air…

He had gills. 

Without pausing to think, he did the only thing that made sense - he flung himself forward into the water. 

* * *

Hermione adjusted the towel on her shoulders again as she looked over the lake. 

The hour was nearly up and there had been no sign of either of her friends. 

“You haff a water beetle in your hair, Herm-own-ninny,” said Viktor, but Hermione impatiently brushed the beetle away.   
“Where is he?” She asked of the water, which remained eerily silent as the noise from the stands increased. “You’re sure you didn’t see him down there?” She asked, as she cast another Tempus charm.

Viktor shook his head. 

The hour was up.

She looked over the lake again and saw a figure emerge — it was Cedric Diggory, shortly followed by Cho. Applause and cheers erupted on the stands but Hermione continued to scout the water for her friends.

Harry hadn’t been himself since the previous task.

Or, no: He had been himself, he just remembered things that had never happened.

Hermione hadn’t found anything in the library that dealt with the opposite of memory loss in quite this way, especially since its onset hadn’t been magical.   
The bleeding wound on the back of his head seemed to have far more to do with it, but it had been healed and Harry hadn’t been in pain… or so he’d said.

She had asked her parents to order her some books on the subject, but those had slightly missed the mark… which she hadn’t realised until she had managed to understand what they said. She really ought to read more medical journals.

Slightly dazed from the stasis charm that had been placed on her, annoyed by Viktor and worried about Harry and Ron, she decided there was nothing for it.

She would have to intervene.

She got her wand out of her robe and called “Accio Harry Potter!”

Much to her surprise, movement came from the shallow part of the lake. There was a big splash as two bare feet breached the surface and Harry flew towards her, landing in a sad heap on the sand, looking pale and unmoving.

The crowd gasped and disturbed calls and murmurs could be heard.

“Harry?” She called as she fell to her knees, patting his face in hopes of getting a response. Some green water plant dangled from his skewed glasses and when it slid off his cheek, it showed more life than he did.

He felt cold and his neck, jaw, and collar bone were covered in red hives. 

Quickly she cast a drying charm on him, but that did nothing to awaken him.

In panic she looked around, but none of the adults looked as if they were about to intervene.

“Harry! Wake up!” She called, but to no avail. 

Harry remained unconscious and unbreathing.

She slapped his cheek a few more times in hopes of getting a response but when that failed, she realised she had to focus on her strength.   
On her _knowledge_.

She adjusted Harry’s position so he was flat on his back, then tapped his chin up, as if to make him look above him.  
“Harry? Can you hear me?” She tried again, but no response came.

She pressed his hands flat above each other on his chest and quickly and rhythmically compressed his ribcage thirty times before leaning back, panting, and checking whether he had started to breathe.

Some water ran from his mouth and there was a little coughing noise, but he didn’t otherwise respond. 

Good, dead people didn’t cough…  
The towel had slid off her back but she didn’t care.

“Call for help,” She said to Viktor, before squeezing Harry’s nose shut and placing her lips on his, then she exhaled deeply.

Had he been underwater for the full hour?

When she broke contact to allow him to exhale, she panted with the effort. Then she went in again, squeezing his nose shut once more.

Why hadn’t they taken his false memories more seriously? What if more damage had been done?  
Sure, Madam Pomfrey had looked him over, but what if with all their magic, they had missed something nonmagical?

Why hadn’t she put her foot down more firmly about getting him checked? Why hadn’t he let her? Should she have gone along with his ramblings of this ‘Janice’ he’d made up?

The noise around her had been constant and she’d been focused on pressing down on Harry’s chest again, so she hadn’t noticed anybody approach.

“Outta the way,” said Professor Moody, after he briskly shoved her aside.  
“This is not the day you die,” He said to Harry as he took him by the hair and roughly moved his head to the side.

The red hives in his neck had faded a little, but he still displayed no sign of life.

“Madam Pomfrey!” Professor Moody called then, so brisk sudden that Hermione jumped.   
Madam Pomfrey jumped too - she had only been a few paces behind them.  
“Gillyweed allergy!” Moody barked at her. 

Madam Pomfrey nodded with severity and cast a charm on Harry. A stretcher unfolded underneath him and levitated him off the ground.

She then cast another charm and water ran out of his mouth.   
He coughed and blearily opened his eyes. 

* * *

Harry wasn’t sure why his neck and jaw itched the way they did, nor did he know why he felt short of breath. 

He did know he had saved Janice from the bottom of the lake though, and the last thing he remembered before passing out was helping her to the surface. Ron had reached for her hand and Hermione had helped Harry up, and their touch had lingered…

He did tend to lose his train of thought when she was around.

…that didn’t explain why he’d passed out, though.

Thankfully Hermione was there.

He hated to see her so concerned and reached for her face, completely ignoring Moody and Madam Pomfrey leaning over him and blocking the sky from his view.

He didn’t mind - Who needed the sky when the sun was right there?

It sucked that he’d made a fool of himself in front of her, apparently, but this wasn’t the first time.  
He’d get over it.

“Mione,” He managed, his throat sore.   
She smiled, still looking concerned, and as she took his hand the butterflies bloomed in his abdomen. 

He remembered their first kiss the day before yesterday, how the touch of her lips on his had made the world feel like it finally made sense, how they had held hands, how she had giggled and told him to focus on his task… 

But how could he focus on anything but her? 

“...I love you.”


End file.
